Imagine John Howard ordering the Federal Police to raid a News Limited newspaper office to seize documents. A ridiculous concept, of course. He would never upset Rupert Murdoch like that. Nor would he disturb the Fairfax corporation, or the West Australian, or Rural Press, or any other newspaper publisher in this country... would he?

If it's the National Indigenous Times, he would.

The NIT's Canberra office was raided by the AFP (that's Australian Federal Police, not Agence France-Presse) yesterday and six leaked documents seized, including a sensitive cabinet submission from the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. NIT's own website carries an AAP report on the raid.

The raid occurred a day after this fortnight's edition hit the streets, with a cover story expose entitled The Real Reason Behind the Abolition of ATSIC.

Perth Indymedia has a copy of the search warrant on its report.

It's been an absolute stinker of a week for indigenous policy as the Howard Government gets its fourth term of office into gear, and I'll have more to say about that shortly.